July 31, 2012 – FINLAND – The mercury rose to over 30 degrees Celsius for the first time this summer in eastern Finland as meteorologists warned of severe thunderstorms later in the day. The temperature exceeded the 30-degree mark in Tohmajärvi, Lieksa and Juuka in North Karelia, close to the Russian border. But the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) says that a cooler weather front has already arrived in western Finland and will start moving eastwards soon, making the current heatwave quite short-lived. Severe thunderstorms are expected to whip up very strong wind gusts on Monday, warns the FMI. Winds may reach speeds of 25 meters per second in North Ostrobothnia and western Finland, and elsewhere in the country gusts of some 15 m/s are expected. Additionally, heavy rainfall is forecast for various parts of Finland on Monday. Thunderstorms left thousands without electricity in different parts of Finland on Sunday. Most of them had been fixed by Monday afternoon. At 1pm, some 200 Fortum customers were still without power. Elenia (formerly known as Vattenfall) had about 1,200 customers without service at that time. -YLE

Italy battles heat wave: The heat wave affecting much of Italy has resulted in an average 10% reduction in national milk output, according to the Italian agricultural union Coldiretti. In some regions, more severely affected, this is as high as 50% down. Dairy farmers are taking steps to cool their cows, including the use of fans in barns and sprinkling the animals with light jets of water, it said. Corn, tomato, beet and sunflower crops have been damaged across the country and some areas have received no rain for months, the Rome-based agricultural union said in an e-mailed statement today. –Agra Net, Bloomberg

Romania: The National Weather Forecaster has extended a Code Yellow warning of heat till Monday for southern and eastern Romania, Bucharest included, while downpours and thunderstorms are expected in the country’s West, Centre and North starting Sunday night. According to a weather warning issued by the Forecaster on Sunday, the high temperatures at between 35 and 37 degrees Celsius will keep on in southern and eastern Romania and will even hit 38 C in some cities. –Act Media

7 Responses to Europe wrestles with searing high temperatures

In the Netherlands (North/West Europe) we battle with extremely high fluctuations in the weather. It can be 16 degrees today (with rain and heavy windgusts) while tomorrow it will be (for example) 29 degrees celsius, no wind and extreme / heavy thunderstorms at night (always at night since the last two months!).

The Netherlands is known for last-minute fluctuations in the weather-pattern… but this is going to an extreme, we have never experienced high fluctuations and strange weather like this.

Two days ago, at night, there was this thunder heard through the whole country (yes, it was this loud!)… it was so loud that I was immideatly awakened and became in a sort of shock condition. The first thought that came in my mind was: This is the end… where is the big meteorite. I am really not exaggerating. This weather is something we have never experienced, the climate is noticeably changing… rapidly.

I thought everyone was reporting that this was the COLDEST summer in Europe for “x” number of years. Can’t have it both ways! It’s either the coldest or the hottest – someone needs to make up their mind and they need to get their stories straight. Either that, or they need to decide which countries are “Europe” and which are not.

Columbine, I know how you feel, but this is’nt the same climate that we used to know, its changing so fast that no even the experts can tell what tomorrows going to be like anymore. “its just so unpredictable now!”

WOW 80 f Thats what I call Great swimming pool temp.
Remember the dust bowl took time to reach it,s worst. that was in a lower solar cycle we are there again the big ? is how bad does it get. We are no where close to what started in the late 20s with flooding ending in the 40s with drought and war.
Catherine